View William Frederick Yeames art prices and auction results | Invaluable Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: WILLIAM FREDERICK YEAMES (BRITISH 1835-1918) AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? Oil on panel 42cm x 54cm (16.5in x 21.3in) Condition Report: Minor scattered retouching. Condition Disclaimer Under the Conditions of Sale applicable to the sale of the lot, buyers must satisfy themselves as to each and every aspect of the quality of the lot, including (without limitation) its authorship, attribution, condition, provenance, authenticity, age, suitability and origin. Lots are sold on an 'as is' basis but the actual condition of the lot may not be as good as indicated by its outward appearance. In particular parts may have been replaced or renewed and lots may not be authentic or of satisfactory quality. Any statement in relation to the lot is merely an expression of opinion of the seller or Lyon & Turnbull and should not be relied upon as an inducement to bid on the lot.

Lots are available for inspection prior to the sale and you are strongly advised to examine any lot in which you are interested prior to the sale. Our condition report has not been prepared by a professional conservator, restorer or engineer. Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: ''The Latest Scandal'', Two Figures in Litters Meeting on a Street, signed lower left: W.F. Yeames, oil on canvas laid to board with supporting stretchers. est:$4000/6000. Note: The present work is the larger finished painting for a study of the same name sold at Christie's South Kensington, 9 November 2000, lot 306 ($1,516). Provenance: Property of Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, South Pasadena, CA; by descent in the family to the present owners Condition Report: Visual: Generally good condition. A few minor scattered spots of loss: one in the upper center, one in the lower center, a few tiny spots on the red litter, one on the center footman, a few tiny spots in the upper right. Blacklight: A 4'' vertical line and some scattered spots of touch-up on the left litter.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: THE TOAST OF THE KITCAT CLUB "It having fallen to the turn of the of the Duke of Kingston to propose a beauty as the annual toast of the club, he nominated his little daughter, Lady Mary Pierrepont (afterwards Lady Mary Wortley Montagu). Some of the members demurred, as they had not seen her. The duke sent for her, and when she arrived, she was received with acclamations, her claims unanimously allowed, and she was petted and caressed by all the eminent men present, including Addison, Steele, Marlborough, Congreve. etc." signed and dated "W.F. Yeames/1884." (lower left) oil on canvas 44 1/2 x 38 in. (113 x 96.5 cm.) PROVENANCE R. Dawber, 1887. EXHIBITED London, Royal Academy, 1884, no. 332. Southport, Atkinson Art Gallery, 1902. Manchester, Royal Jubilee Exhibition, 1887, no. 225.

LITERATURE Henry Blackburn (ed.), Royal Academy Notes, 1884, p. 29, (illustrated). Art Journal, 1884, p. 210. Athenaeum, no. 2949, 3 May 1884, pp. 571, 701-2. Yeames was born at Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was the British Consul. Having received his first artistic education in Dresden, he came to London in 1848 and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott and the architectural draughtsman George Scharf. He was in Italy from 1852 to 1858, when he returned to London, making his debut at the Royal Academy the following year. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866, a full Academician in 1878, and subsequently Librarian. He also supported the British Institution, the Royal Society of British Artists and the more advanced Grosvenor Gallery, launched in 1877. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, together with P.H.

Calderon, H.S. Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey; but on his retirement from the RA in 1913 he moved to Teignmouth, where he died in 1918 at the age of eighty-three. Yeames was a versatile talent, turning his hand to portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, and even the occasional "aesthetic" composition (see lot 71), but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of real or imaginary historical events, ranging from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Today he is largely remembered for one picture, And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), in which, as everyone knows, the young son of a cavalier is seen being interrogated by Roundheads. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, and Yeames seems to have been elected an RA on the strength of it; but as Edward Morris has recently observed, it did not have an immediate success, gaining its phenomenal popular reputation rather slowly (see Victorian and Edwardian Paintings in the Walker Art Gallery and at Sudley House, 1996, pp.

525-6). Nonetheless the present picture, exhibited six years later, seems to show the artist attempting to repeat the formula he had established in the earlier work. The colouring is comparable, but more importantly the subject is once again a tense and dramatic confrontation between a child and a group of adults. This is not of course to say that the mood is similar. In the Liverpool picture the stage is potentially set for the darkest tragedy; ours is a comedy of manners. The Kit-Cat Club was the best known of the many clubs that sprang up in London in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, places where men could meet in the evening to discuss politics, literature and the news of the town over food and wine. It developed in the last years of the reign of William III (1689-1702) out of informal meetings of Whig sympathisers, headed by the publisher and bookseller Jacob Tonson. Tonson himself became secretary to the Club, which soon included most of the leading Whigs of the day. They first met at a tavern near Temple Bar kept by Christopher Cat, and the mutton pies known as "Kit-Cats" for which the establishment was famous gave the Club its name.

In 1703 Tonson bought a house at Barn Elms, near Putney, where he set aside a room for Kit-Cat meetings, but the Club continued to convene occasionally in London taverns, and in the summer often frequented the Flask Inn at Hampstead. It met regularly every week during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), but the meetings became less frequent after the accession of George I, and had ceased altogether by about 1720. "The best club that ever met", as Sir John Vanbrugh called it, included three of the five peers who led the Whig party and were known as the Junto; many of the leading Whig courtiers and landowners; rising stars of the party such as Robert Walpole, William Pulteney and James Stanhope who were to become the rulers of eighteenth-century England; and Whig men of letters like Addison, Congreve and Steele. It was an age when politics and literature were more closely allied than at any time before or since, the politicians valuing the writers" ability to influence public opinion and the writers benefiting from political patronage.

All were men of wit, taste and social accomplishment, and subscribed to the same Whig principles - belief in the Revolution settlement, loyalty to the Hanoverian succession, and implacable opposition to Louis XIV of France, the chief Catholic power in Europe and the supporter of the exiled Stuarts. Today the fame of the Kit-Cat Club rests to a large extent on the portraits of members which were commissioned by Tonson from Sir Godfrey Kneller, who lived some eight miles from Barn Elms at Whitton, near Hounslow. Mostly executed between 1702 and 1717, they were designed to hang round the specially-built Kit-Cat room in Tonson's house, and were all three-quarter length likenesses on canvases measuring 36 x 28 inches - a format that has remained a stock size for portraits, known as a "kit-cat". The forty-two portraits were engraved and published by Tonson in 1735, a year before his death. They remained in his family until 1945, when they were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery.

It was a custom of the Club to drink an annual toast to a lady proposed by the members, and glasses were inscribed with the names of particular favourites and verses composed in their honour. The most popular toast of all was Lady Anne Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough's daughter and the wife of Lord Sunderland. The present picture shows the occasion when the Earl of Kingston introduced his young daughter, Lady Mary Pierrepont, a girl who was later, as Lady Mary Wortley Montague, to achieve fame in her own right - as a wit and beauty, a masterly letter writer and pioneer of innoculation, and for conducting a passionate love-hate relationship with Pope. Kingston's proposal is said to have met with misgivings on the part of the other members, but these soon changed to delight when the child appeared, and she herself later declared that it was the happiest day of her life.

Standing prominently to the left and appraising her with a painter's eye is Kneller, while behind him to the left are Christopher Cat, the proprietor of the "Cat and Fiddle" tavern where the Club held its first meetings, John, Duke of Marlborough, and the poet, essayist and statesman Joseph Addison, who was to write a panegyric on Marlborough's great victory at Blenheim (1704). In the background, immediately to the right of Kneller, is Thomas, first Marquess of Wharton, a leading whig minister under Queen Anne, a rake, a free thinker and a connoisseur of horses and hounds. The man in blue leaning over a chair is Sir Samuel Garth, an eminent physician with a large practice in Covent Garden who was to become Physician-in-Ordinary to George I. He was also a poet and a friend of Dryden and Pope.

Seated on the next chair and turning to look at the child is William Congreve, the dramatist, famous for The Way of the World and other "Restoration" comedies, while immediately behind him, raising his glass, stands Jacob Tonson, the Club's secretary and prime mover, as well as the publisher of many of its literary laminaries. Yet another of these, Sir Richard Steele, a close friend of Addison and his collaborator on the Tatler and Spectator, is seated below the window. To the right, behind Lady Mary, is her father, Evelyn Pierrepont, fifth Earl of Kingston. He was to serve as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council under George I, and was created Duke of Kingston in 1715. The man carrying a tray, silhouetted against the window, is a servant, and the figure with his back to us on the extreme right is unidentified. Lady Mary is said to have been nominated a toast of the Club "before she was eight", and she appears about this age in the picture. However, since she was born in 1689 she would have been thirteen when the Club was founded about 1702.

Moreover, presumably her introduction took place some years later than this since the practice of nominating a lady for the annual toast was well established when the Earl proposed his young daughter. There are other anomalies of this kind. It is not historically correct to include Kneller in the picture since he was never a member of the Club, although a self-portrait was included in the series of members' likenesses he painted for Tonson; and it is probably wrong to show the portraits adorning the walls of Christopher Cat's tavern when they were specially commissioned by Tonson for his club-room at Barn Elms. A closer look at the figures represented might also show that they were not all members at the same time. Nonetheless, the picture has its own logic, and F.G. Stephens praised it in his review of the 1884 Academy in the Athenaeum. Critical of the exhibition in general, he thought it one of the more "noteworthy examples", a particularly "telling piece of genre" treated with the artist's "characteristic tact... The design is commendable because it includes many just, choice, and varied expressions.

The little girl, advancing with a bright demureness, is charming." The Art Journal also liked the way in which Yeames had united the figures by "the variety of (their) kindly smiles: tender, respectful, amused, patronising, or simply surprised." Today the picture can be seen as an attractive and interesting example of the late-Victorian rediscovery of the eighteenth century. The phenomenon took many forms, and if Yeames' picture finds close parallels in the literary genre scenes of Frith and the historical conversation pieces of Orchardson, more general comparisons are offered by Millais's and Watts's reinterpretations of Reynolds's portraits and the emergence of the "Queen Anne" style in architecture and the decorative arts. Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: TENDER THOUGHTS signed and dated "W.F.Yeames 1883" (lower left) oil on canvas 28 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (72.5 x 92.7 cm.) PROVENANCE Agnew's, London. Gooden & Fox, London. EXHIBITED London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 314.

LITERATURE Henry Blackburn (ed.), Royal Academy Notes, 1883, p. 33 (illustrated). Athenaeum, no. 2900, 26 May 1883, p. 675. Yeames was a fairly versatile talent, specialising in historical themes (see lot 70) but capable of producing genre scenes, landscapes, and portraits. Nonetheless this exercise in "aesthetic" values would appear to be unusual. The Greek regularity of the girl's features, the indeterminate style of her dress, the flowers, the ebonised furniture and the colour harmony in the key of yellow, all suggest an awareness of "aesthetic" priorities, perhaps as handled by Albert Moore or even Rossetti. It says much about the picture's "subjectless" character that it could have had one of several titles. Yeames gives it a sentimental gloss by calling it Tender Thoughts, but it could equally well have been called II Dolce far Niente (the sweet doing nothing). This title was adopted for this type of work by a number of artists, including Holman Hunt and J.W. Waterhouse. F.G.

Stephens in his review of the Royal Academy exhibition in the Athenaeum described the picture as showing a "richly dressed lady... (with) a soft and sweet expression.". Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: The Meeting of Sir Thomas More with his Daughter after his Sentence of Death 'Thare tarryeinge his comminge, as soone as she sawe him, after his blessinge uppon her knees reverentlie received, she hastinge towards him, without consideracion or care of her selfe, pressinge in amongst the midst of the thronge and companie of the garde that with holbards and bills went round about him, hastelie raune to him, and theare openly in sight of them imbraced him, and took him about the neck, and kissed him, who well likinge her most naturall and deere daughterlie affection towards him, gave her his fatherlie blessinge and manie godlie words of comfort besides.' - Roper signed 'W.F. Yeames/1863' (lower right) and inscribed 'Meeting of Sir Thomas More/with his daughter after his/sentence of death/William F.

Yeames, ARA/4 Grove End Road/St. John's Wood' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 40 x 68 in. (101.5 x 173 cm.) LITERATURE Times, 7 May 1863, p. 7. Athenaeum, no. 1854, 9 May 1863, p. 623. Art Journal, 1863, p. 107. EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1863, no. 522. NOTES Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. He came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy before settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866 and a full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, together with P.H. Calderon, H.S.

Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey. He could turn his hand to most types of painting, including portraits and landscape, but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of historical events, both real and imaginary. And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), exhibited at the Academy in 1878, is by far the most famous. The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill.

His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving 'his fatherly blessing' again, and 'many godly words of comfort besides'. More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine o'clock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he 'never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.' Margaret was More's oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of King's Bench, about 1525.

After More's execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578. As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. Roper's chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-law's death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life.

It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue. The picture was well received. 'There are qualities of drawing and composition...', wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, 'which justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attained'. F.G. Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired 'the various and admirably defined actions and expressions', all 'high testimonies to the painter's keen perception of his subject', while the Art Journal thought it 'a well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.' The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father?

was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878. The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. Herbert's scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by Roper's biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery. A small version was sold by Christie's in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: The Meeting of Sir Thomas More with his Daughter after his Sentence of Death 'Thare tarryeinge his comminge, as soone as she sawe him, after his blessinge uppon her knees reverentlie received, she hastinge towards him, without consideracion or care of her selfe, pressinge in amongst the midst of the thronge and companie of the garde that with holbards and bills went round about him, hastelie raune to him, and theare openly in sight of them imbraced him, and took him about the neck, and kissed him, who well likinge her most naturall and deere daughterlie affection towards him, gave her his fatherlie blessinge and manie godlie words of comfort besides.' - Roper signed 'W.F. Yeames/1863' (lower right) and inscribed 'Meeting of Sir Thomas More/with his daughter after his/sentence of death/William F. Yeames, ARA/4 Grove End Road/St. John's Wood' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 40 x 68 in.

(101.5 x 173 cm.) EXHIBITED: London, Royal Academy, 1863, no. 522. LITERATURE: Times, 7 May 1863, p. 7. Athenaeum, no. 1854, 9 May 1863, p. 623. Art Journal, 1863, p. 107. Footnotes:Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. He came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy before settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866 and a full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, together with P.H. Calderon, H.S. Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey.

He could turn his hand to most types of painting, including portraits and landscape, but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of historical events, both real and imaginary. And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), exhibited at the Academy in 1878, is by far the most famous. The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill. His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving 'his fatherly blessing' again, and 'many godly words of comfort besides'.

More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine o'clock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he 'never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.' Margaret was More's oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of King's Bench, about 1525. After More's execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578.

As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. Roper's chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-law's death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life. It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue. The picture was well received. 'There are qualities of drawing and composition...', wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, 'which justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attained'. F.G.

Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired 'the various and admirably defined actions and expressions', all 'high testimonies to the painter's keen perception of his subject', while the Art Journal thought it 'a well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.' The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father? was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878. The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. Herbert's scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by Roper's biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery.

A small version was sold by Christie's in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147. Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: The Meeting of Sir Thomas More with his Daughter after his Sentence of Death ÔThare tarryeinge his comminge, as soone as she sawe him, after his blessinge uppon her knees reverentlie received, she hastinge towards him, without consideracion or care of her selfe, pressinge in amongst the midst of the thronge and companie of the garde that with holbards and bills went round about him, hastelie raune to him, and theare openly in sight of them imbraced him, and took him about the neck, and kissed him, who well likinge her most naturall and deere daughterlie affection towards him, gave her his fatherlie blessinge and manie godlie words of comfort besides.Õ - Roper signed ÔW.F. Yeames/1863Õ (lower right) and inscribed ÔMeeting of Sir Thomas More/with his daughter after his/sentence of death/William F.

Yeames, ARA/4 Grove End Road/St. JohnÕs WoodÕ (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 40 x 68 in. (101.5 x 173 cm.) Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1863, no. 522. Literature: Times, 7 May 1863, p. 7. Athanaeum, no. 1854, 9 May 1863, p. 623. Art Journal, 1863, p. 107. Footnotes:Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. He came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy before settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866 and a full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St JohnÕs Wood Clique, together with P.H. Calderon, H.S.

Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey. He could turn his hand to most types of painting, including portraits and landscape, but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of historical events, both real and imaginary. And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), exhibited at the Academy in 1878, is by far the most famous. The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the KingÕs marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill.

His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving Ôhis fatherly blessingÕ again, and Ômany godly words of comfort besidesÕ. More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine oÕclock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he Ônever liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.Õ Margaret was MoreÕs oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of KingÕs Bench, about 1525.

After MoreÕs execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578. As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. RoperÕs chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-lawÕs death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life.

It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue. The picture was well recieved. ÔThere are qualities of drawing and composition...Õ, wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, Ôwhich justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attainedÕ. F.G. Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired Ôthe various and admirably defined actions and expressionsÕ, all Ôhigh testimonies to the painterÕs keen perception of his subjectÕ, while the Art Journal thought it Ôa well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.Õ The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father?

was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878. The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. HerbertÕs scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by RoperÕs biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery. A small version was sold by ChristieÕs in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: The Meeting of Sir Thomas More with his Daughter after his Sentence of Death 'Thare tarryeinge his comminge, as soone as she sawe him, after his blessinge uppon her knees reverentlie received, she hastinge towards him, without consideracion or care of her selfe, pressinge in amongst the midst of the thronge and companie of the garde that with holbards and bills went round about him, hastelie raune to him, and theare openly in sight of them imbraced him, and took him about the neck, and kissed him, who well likinge her most naturall and deere daughterlie affection towards him, gave her his fatherlie blessinge and manie godlie words of comfort besides.' - Roper signed 'W.F. Yeames/1863' (lower right) and inscribed 'Meeting of Sir Thomas More/with his daughter after his/sentence of death/William F. Yeames, ARA/4 Grove End Road/St. John's Wood' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 40 x 68 in.

(101.5 x 173 cm.) LITERATURE Times, 7 May 1863, p. 7. Athenaeum, no. 1854, 9 May 1863, p. 623. Art Journal, 1863, p. 107. EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1863, no. 522. NOTES Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. He came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy before settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866 and a full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, together with P.H. Calderon, H.S. Marks, G.D. Leslie, D.W. Wynfield and G.A. Storey.

He could turn his hand to most types of painting, including portraits and landscape, but he made his name with elaborate reconstructions of historical events, both real and imaginary. And when did you last see your father? (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), exhibited at the Academy in 1878, is by far the most famous. The present picture, shown at the R.A. in 1863, is an early work, and tighter in handling than the familiar masterpiece. It shows the scene outside the Tower of London when Sir Thomas More returned from his trial in Westminster Hall on 1 July 1535. He had been indicted for high treason on the grounds that he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the English Church, and the validity of the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was found guilty and condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, a sentence later commuted to beheading on Tower Hill. His children were waiting for him as he came from Westminster, and after he had blessed them, his daughter Margaret Roper broke through the crowd and armed guard to embrace him, receiving 'his fatherly blessing' again, and 'many godly words of comfort besides'.

More had already been in the Tower since April 1534, awaiting trial. Suffering much from ill health, he was kept in prison for another few days, being executed at nine o'clock on the morning of 6 July. He wrote his last letter to Margaret the previous day, telling her that he 'never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no liesure to look to wordly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.' Margaret was More's oldest and favourite daughter. A woman of great erudition, she had married William Roper, a notary in the Court of King's Bench, about 1525. After More's execution, she buried his headless corpse in the family vault in Chelsea Church, and, according to one account, privately purchased his head after it had been displayed on London Bridge, preserving it in spices until her death in 1544. William outlived her until 1578.

As a young man he had flirted with Lutheranism, but contact with More had caused him to return to Catholicism, and his subsequent career reflects the religious turmoil of the time. Under Queen Mary he sat in parliament, representing Rochester and Canterbury, but he fell foul of the Elizabethan privy council for allegedly giving financial support to dissidents who had fled the country and published seditious literature. Roper's chief claim to fame, however, is the biography of More that he wrote after his father-in-law's death. First published in Paris in 1626 under the title The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More, it is the earliest biography of More, and the chief source of information concerning his private life. It is Roper who tells us of the touching encounter between More and his daughter on the Tower wharf, and Yeames quoted the passage in the R.A. catalogue. The picture was well received. 'There are qualities of drawing and composition...', wrote Tom Taylor in the Times, 'which justify anticipations of something higher than Mr Yeames, who has been yearly advancing, has yet attained'. F.G.

Stephens, in the Athenaeum, admired 'the various and admirably defined actions and expressions', all 'high testimonies to the painter's keen perception of his subject', while the Art Journal thought it 'a well managed composition of varied incident and touching pathos...The story is simply and clearly told, and the painting sufficiently careful. This picture is the more commendable inasmuch as it relies on character and expression, and is free, with the exception perhaps of some flaunting reds, from all adventitious blandishments. Mr Yeames may be added to the list of those advancing artists who give promise to the future.' The picture probably helped to gain Yeames his Associateship three years later, just as And when did you last see your father? was responsible for his being made a full Academician in 1878. The closest parallel to the present picture in Victorian painting is probably J.R. Herbert's scene of More and his daughter in his cell in the Tower before his trial. Also inspired by Roper's biography, the picture was exhibited at the R.A. in 1844, entered the collection of Robert Vernon, and is now in the Tate Gallery.

A small version was sold by Christie's in London on 11 October 1991, lot 147. Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: dated 1853 oil on canvas 22 by 17 3/4 in. 55.9 by 45.1 cm. Bardolph was a member of Sir John Falstaff's gang of rogues, a band of merry-makers that provided comic relief to Shakespeare's historical play Henry IV, Part I. Bardolph, as described by Falstaff, had a face that was "all bubukles, and whelts and knobs and flames of fire", the physical signs of acute alcoholism. Marks'depiction of Bardolph is not one of fun and games, but of empathy and melancholy. The characterization of Bardolph certainly has moralizing overtones which would have held tremendous appeal for Victorian tastes. Marks does not choose to depict Bardolph as a bawdy and jovial ruffian, but as a morose figure ravaged by alcohol and the disreputable life he leads, as he stares down into his presumably empty stein.

The meticulous technique and strong narrative quality were highly appealing to the connoisseurs of Shakespearean painting. Marks was affiliated with an informal group of painters known as the St. John's Wood 'Clique', along with the artists Philip H. Calderon (1833-98), William Frederick Yeames (1835-1918) and George Story (1834-1919). This group was known for their fondess of high-jinx and practical jokes and especially for their accomplished treatment of Shakespearean subjects. Marks exhibited his works primarily at the Royal Academy, where he was active between 1853 and 1897 and the St John's Wood 'Clique' had great influence. Unlike many of his Victorian contemporaries, Marks tended to specialize in portraying the more comedic aspects of Shakespearean characters. A highly admired and respected figure, Marks was as much renowned for his wry sense of humor and scholar's knowledge of Shakespeare as for his accomplished watercolors and oils. Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1854, No. 1270.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: Study for 'And when did You last see your Father?' oil on panel 16 5/8 x 211/4 in. (42.2 x 54 cm.) PROVENANCE By descent from the artist to Mary Alice Chively. Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1983, lot 209, when acquired by the present owner. EXHIBITION The Age of Innocence, 1989. Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, And when did you last see your Father?, 1993, no. 43. NOTES This is a preparatory sketch for one of the best known depictions of the English Civil War, and arguably one of the most famous of all Victorian Pictures. As was so often the case, the panel on which it was painted was used for a finished picture, A Cottage Garden, which is included in the present sale as lot 270. Under the guidance of Simon Edsor, skilled conservators have now separated the panel in two, and two separate paintings can now be enjoyed.

The finished composition was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, no. 329, and was bought by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, where it remains. Our sketch, though containing many of the figures in the final composition, is a more crowded affair, and it is interesting to note how the artist has spaced the figures in the final work to achieve the haunting impression of drama, dignity and pathos. In his memoirs the artist recalled: 'I had at the time I painted this picture living in my house a nephew of an innocent and truthful disposition, and it occurred to me to represent him in a situation where the child's outspokenness and unconsciousness would lead to disastrous consequences, and a scene in a country house occupied by the Puritans during the Rebellion in England suited my purpose'. The scene is poised at the moment where the child on the footstool is offered a choice between honesty and prudence. He is still too innocent to choose the latter, although contemporary critics were divided about his likely response. The picture assisted Yeames's election to the Royal Academy, but its subsequent fame was acquired gradually as it became known through reproduction, and a waxworks replica at Madame Tussaud's.

It amply fulfilled the fate desired of it by the critic of the Times, 'to help people to something like a realisation of the life of the past, akin in painting to a well-written historical novel'. Yeames was born in Taganrog in Southern Russia, where his father was British Consul. The carpet on the table - a Tekkeensi - from Turkmenistan, rare in the West in 1878, was no doubt collected by his parents on this posting. Yeames came to England at the age of thirteen and studied under the sculptor Richard Westmacott, then spent six years in Italy, before finally settling in London and making his debut at the Royal Academy in 1859. He remained a regular contributor, becoming an Associate in 1866, and full Academician in 1878. For many years he was a member of the St John's Wood Clique, whose members such as P.H. Calderon, H.S Marks, G.D. Leslie and G.A. Storey, specialised in historical reconstructions.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: A Cottage Garden oil on panel 21 5/8 x 16 5/8 in. (54.9 x 42.1 cm.) PROVENANCE By descent to Mary Alice Chively. Anon. sale, Sotheby's London, 14 July 1983, lot 209, when acquired by the present owner. EXHIBITION Urban Images, 1995, no. 12. NOTES When this picture was acquired a fascinating early sketch of Yeames's most famous work, And when did you last see your father? was found on the reverse. Through the work of skilled conservators, the panel has been divided in two and the two pictures can now be enjoyed separately. The sketch is included in the present sale as lot 243. Such charming scenes of domestic genre are rare in Yeames's oeuvre, although he was a versatile talent who turned his hand to most types of painting. The courtyard depicted is strongly reminiscent of those found in 17th century Dutch painting, in particular of those in the works of Pieter de Hooch.

Estimate: Log in or create account to view price data Description: Tender Thoughts signed and dated 'W.F. Yeames 1883' lower left oil on canvas 28 x 36in. (72.5 x 92.7cm.) PROVENANCE With Agnew's, London With Gooden & Fox, London LITERATURE H. Blackburn (ed.), Royal Academy Notes, 1883, p. 33 (illustrated) Athenaeum, May 26, 1883, p. 675, no. 2900 EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 314 NOTES Yeames was a fairly versatile talent, specialising in historical themes but capable of producing genre scenes, landscapes and portraits. Nonetheless this exercise in 'aesthetic' values, would appear to be unusual. The Greek regularity of the girl's features, the interminate style of her dress, the flowers, the ebonized furniture and the color harmony in the key of yellow, all suggest an awareness of 'aesthetic' priorities, perhaps as hendled by Albert Moore or even Rossetti.

It says much about the picture's 'subjectless' character that it could have had one of several titles. Yeames gives it a sentimental gloss by calling it Tender Thoughts, but it could equally well have been called Il Dolce far Niente (the sweet doing nothing). This title was adopted for this type of work by a number of artists, including Holman Hunt and J.W. Waterhouse. F.G. Stephens in his review of the Royal Academy exhibition in the Athenaeum described the picture as showing a 'richly dressed lady... (with) a soft and sweet expression.'.

Question: The painting And When Did You Last See Your Father? by William Frederick Yeames is set in the middle of which century?
Answer: SEVENTEENTH